Scuffle breaks out at main Cosatu rally

A scuffle has broken out between Cosatu members and another group of what appears to be ANC members clad in the party’s yellow T-shirts.

Marshalls tried to calm the situation, as leaders who are separated from the crowd by a fence looked on. Police also lined up the barricade.

The scuffle broke out after President Jacob Zuma arrived at Cosatu’s main Worker’s Day rally at Loch Logan Park in Bloemfontein.

Earlier, the crowd booed Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini when he was introduced. 

They also put their hands in the air doing the soccer change signal. The crowd also chanted that Zuma must go, and sang a song which, when loosely translated, said “Have you heard the good news, Zuma is going”.

Earlier Cosatu in the Free State said it was concerned that there were people wearing T-shirts that did not have an emblem of any of their affiliates.

Bloemfontein – Cosatu was forced to abort its main May Day rally in Bloemfontein on Monday after President Jacob Zuma was prevented from delivering the keynote address.

– See the Live Update here.

The unrelenting crowd sang anti-Zuma songs, which escalated when the president arrived at Loch Logan Park.  

A scuffle also broke out between Zuma supporters and those against him, with some Cosatu members carrying knobkerries and sjamboks, calling on him to go.

In an unprecedented move, after several failed attempts by provincial leaders to calm the crowd, Cosatu announced an end to the event with no speeches delivered.

Zuma was expected to share the stage with Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini and SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande. 

#WorkersDay Cosatu’s Sdumo Dlamini reacts to today’s failed programme @News24 pic.twitter.com/XkTsTarjxq

— Matshidiso Madia (@tshidi_lee) May 1, 2017

It was Zuma’s first appearance at a Cosatu event since the ANC-alliance partners called for him to step down. The SACP also called for Zuma to resign, after he reshuffled his Cabinet without consulting the alliance partners. 

Zuma was expected to receive a hostile reception after Cosatu’s biggest affiliate, Nehawu, wrote to the federation demanding that they replace him with deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as the main speaker. They said it would be confusing to have Zuma speak after publicly calling for him to step down.

However, Cosatu leaders said it was up to the ANC to decide who it deploys to their nationwide rallies. 

During the scuffle and anti-Zuma chants, Zuma sat alongside Dlamini and they periodically chatted.  

ANC Free State chairperson Ace Magashule was also seated next to them. At one point, Zuma left the area where the leaders were sitting and went to his car. It appeared he was taking a phone call. He was followed by his bodyguards.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africans must be assured that the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment (Fica) Bill is not used to “further political goals of certain individuals,” the Black Business Council (BBC) said on Saturday.

Welcoming the long-awaited signing into law of the bill by President Jacob Zuma, the council also urged the National Treasury and law enforcement agencies to apply this law without fear or favour.

“South Africans must be assured that this law is not used to further political goals of certain individuals, that the law is not used to exclude others from the financial system,” council chairman Sello Rasethaba said.

READ: Zuma signs Fica bill into law

“The Fica law must not be used to discriminate instead of ensuring that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations are implemented in a transparent and democratic manner,” he said.

According to the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity organisation, more money flowed illegally out of developing and emerging countries each year – facilitated by secrecy in the global financial system – than they received in foreign direct investment and foreign aid combined. Beyond bleeding the world’s poorest economies, this propelled crime, corruption, and tax evasion globally.

The signing of the bill would go a long way to “eradicate export under-invoicing and import mis-invoicing, corrupt government officials, other criminals, and commercial tax evaders who are able to move assets easily out of countries and into tax havens, anonymous companies, and secret bank accounts as reported by the Cape Times earlier this month”, Rasethaba said.

The bill’s enactment has also been welcomed by Parliament’s finance standing committee, the Banking Association of South Africa (Basa), and the Democratic Alliance, among others.

Committee chairman Yunus Carrim said the bill would help the country’s efforts to combat money laundering, illicit financial flows, and financing of terrorism.

“Our country has lost over R600 billion in illicit financial flows over the past 10 years. It is big businesses, not emerging black businesses that are primarily responsible for this. It is the poor and disadvantaged who ultimately bear a disproportional burden,” he said.

READ: There is a risk Gigaba may delay implementation of Fica bill: DA

Basa MD Cas Coovadia said the association was “relieved” that Zuma had finally signed the bill into law.

“We have been urging the president to sign the bill for a number of months and, though we welcome the signing, it is a pity we reached a stage where FATF had to warn us we would be delinquent if we had not signed by June,” he said.

“The signing of the bill ensures banks in SA remain at the cutting edge of global best practice and we are able to identify and deal with money laundering, terrorism financing, and other such activities.

“The signing also enables a risk-based approach to combating these activities so that bank clients who are less susceptible to such activities will be subject to lighter touch regulation and those significantly susceptible to such activities will be subject to stronger oversight,” Coovadia said.

However, the Democratic Alliance warned there was a risk that Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba may delay implementation of the bill – one of the most important legislative weapons in the fight against corruption in South Africa – despite it having been signed by Zuma.

The bill provided for ongoing monitoring of the business relationships, sources of wealth, and sources of funds of “domestic prominent influential persons” and family members and close associates of such persons in South Africa, DA spokesman David Maynier said.

“What this means is that President Jacob Zuma and his most important clients, the Guptas, are going to feel the heat as their business relationships, sources of wealth, and sources of funds are subjected to ongoing monitoring by financial institutions in South Africa.

“However, the battle is far from over and there could still be significant delays in implementing the legislation because despite being signed into law… the legislation only actually commences on a date to be determined by the minister and published in the Government Gazette.

“The minister will no doubt be under political pressure to delay the implementation of the legislation to protect his political master’s most important clients, the Guptas. The minister should, therefore, take decisive action and set out clear time frames and budgets for the implementation of the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Bill,” Maynier said.

African News Agency

Cape Town – A top government spy with a dubious past and close ties to President Jacob Zuma has allegedly been nominated to become South Africa’s new ambassador to Japan.
 
News24 and Rapport have reliably learnt that Thulani Dhlomo (45), the State Security Agency’s (SSA) former head of special operations and a former head of counter intelligence at the SSA’s domestic intelligence branch, has been nominated by Zuma to become ambassador to Japan after he was allegedly suspended from the SSA last year.
 
Japan is one of South Africa’s largest trading partners and the ambassadorship in this Asian country is one of the most sought after and best paid jobs in South Africa’s diplomatic structures.
 
According to five independent sources within intelligence circles, Dhlomo was suspended last year over an alleged transgression apparently related to trips he had taken abroad.  However, soon after his alleged suspension, Dhlomo apparently returned to his position at the SSA.
 
Dhlomo, who uses several diplomatic passports for his overseas travels, also goes by the name Silence Dlomo, according to border control records obtained by News24 and Rapport.
 
Sandy Kalyan, the DA’s deputy spokesperson on international relations, says her party has “unofficially” heard of Dhlomo’s pending appointment as ambassador to Japan. Kalyan says the DA intends to ask Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, minister of international relations and cooperation (Dirco), what criteria was used in the alleged decision to nominate Dhlomo for this important position.

“Only reports to Zuma”

Dhlomo’s appointment as head of the SSA’s Special Operations Unit (SOU) in 2012 was shrouded in controversy after it came to light that he had been involved in alleged tender corruption in KwaZulu-Natal. Before his appointment at the SSA, Dhlomo was the head of security at the province’s department of social development. It was alleged that Dhlomo had received a kickback of R1 million related to tenders worth R45 million. Dhlomo resigned from the department after an investigation ordered by then social development MEC Meshack Radebe found that he had interfered in tender procedures at the department.  
 
After his appointment at the SSA in 2012, City Press reported that Dhlomo had upset several of his colleagues at the SSA after he allegedly stated that he “only reported to Zuma.”
 
In 2016, Rapport and City Press reported that Dhlomo had apparently abused his position as SOU head by ordering covert operations that appeared to have personally benefited Zuma. One such operation entailed ordering a former apartheid-era spy to travel to Europe in order to source documents that allegedly implicated Zuma in corruption related to the arms deal.

Some of these documents were later controversially barred from being entered as evidence during the Seriti commission of inquiry into the arms deal. 

Travel records obtained by News24 and Rapport show that Dhlomo has travelled abroad at least once a month since his appointment at the SSA in 2012. His frequent overseas trips are seemingly at odds with his former position as head of counter intelligence at the spy agency’s domestic intelligence branch.
 
In January and February this year alone Dhlomo crossed the country’s borders at least ten times, a further 14 times in 2016, and 12 times in 2015, according to the travel records.
 
Dhlomo was appointed as deputy director of domestic counter intelligence in 2014. According to Kalyan and David Maynier, the DA’s erstwhile spokesperson on intelligence, it is highly irregular for someone in his position at the SSA’s domestic branch to travel abroad as frequently as Dhlomo did.

No response

Dhlomo could not be reached for comment. His wife, Oarabile, said her husband was currently abroad.
 
“Oh, that,” Oarabile said when she was asked about Dhlomo’s alleged appointment as ambassador to Japan. She said she did not want to comment on the development.
 
Clayson Monyela, Dirco’s spokesperson, did not confirm or deny the alleged nomination.
 
“There is no diplomatic tradition in any country of discussing names nor reasons associated with nominees for diplomatic postings. Nominees are only considered representatives of their country following the completion of diplomatic training, securing security clearances and after presenting credentials to the receiving country.
 
Bongani Ngqulunga, Zuma’s spokesperson, did not respond to queries over whether Zuma had nominated Dhlomo for the position.

The SSA chose not to comment on Dhlomo’s alleged suspension and his trips abroad.

“Please note [the] SSA will not be commenting,” said Brian Dube, the spy agency’s spokesperson.

News24 and Rapport has reliably learnt that Dhlomo will soon start his diplomatic training at Dirco. Beryl Sisulu, human settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s adopted sister, was ambassador to Japan for less than a year. She will apparently be moved to Australia, where she will become the South African high commissioner (as an ambassador in Commonwealth countries is referred to).
 
S’bu Ndebele, former minister of transport and former high commissioner to Australia, resigned from the latter position after he was charged with corruption over an alleged bribe of R10 million he received when he was transport minister. Ndebele was arrested in 2015 over the charges. City Press reported in March that Ndebele complained to Zuma about political interference with the charges against him and that the charges might be dropped.

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Cape Town – Rescuers are set to abseil from the Table Mountain Cable Way to get to a man who got stuck above India Venster on Friday evening. 

Wilderness Search and Rescue’s Johan Marais said a technical response team has gained permission from the cable car company to use the it in the operation.

Emergency services received a distress call from the man roughly 20:30 to inform them he was unable to move. 

Marais could not confirm if the man sustained any injuries or how the man got stuck on the mountain.